Soft-Mod Tutorial: How to play backups with only SD Media Launcher + Extra Info

As far as I know, only DVD-R work. I had originally burned to +R but found that they did not work. So I switched to -R and they work perfectly.

 

In my experience DVD-r is the only kind that works.

 

All righty, I ordered the SD, will try burning + and report back with results

 

just try 1 of each and c wich is best im not sur wat the difference is between - and + r's

 

Well its my understanding that I won't be able to burn - on a + burner, so if + doesn't work then I'll either need to do the laser adjustment, use a - burner or both.
I know when I first got this burner a couple years ago I got - media not realizing the difference and my drive refused to recognize it.

 

Okay so I ordered the SD Media Launcher 1GB and got everything working. I burned a bunch of ISO/GCMs to Ritek Mini-DVD-Rs. I put both GCOS 1.5 and GCOS 1.X on the SD card and I went off to my Gamecube.

So here's where I got questions/comments. GCOS 1.5 WILL run games. My laser is UNTWEAKED. It does not run ALL games, but some. Some games run flawlessly (Zelda:TP, Resident Evil 3, WarioWare) Some games stop in the middle of play and tells me to check my manual and power off the system (Super Smash Bros Melee). Some games don't get past GCOS (Resident Evil 4). I've read that tweaking my laser will solve most of these problems, and I am planning to do that shortly. Is there anything else I can do? I'm sure my media is high quality and I burned them all at slow speeds.

With GCOS 1.X, it won't run ANY games at all. It says something to the effect of 'DRIVE 6029110 OK!' then brings me back to the main menu again. Is there something I am doing wrong? Has anyone ACTUALLY got 1.X to run with SD Media Launcher? I don't think this is a laser tweak problem because even the games that run flawlessly in 1.5 don't run at all in 1.X. Anyone else having this problem, or can tell me why 1.X won't work for me?

I'll post more comments after I tweak the laser, but be forewarned those that are interested in doing this, it's not 100% compatibility of all your backups off the start. I'm hoping that the laser tweak will fix that.

 

A small update. I was browsing through the GCOS site and I stumbled upon something called the GCOS LIBOGC PUBLIC BETA.DOL

Well I gave it a test run and to my surprise, it works BETTER than 1.5! Games that weren't recognized or didn't run with 1.5 now run flawlessly with this GCOS LIBOGC PUBLIC BETA.DOL and again, my laser is UNTWEAKED. I found it here at

http://www.gamecubeos.com/modules/mydownloads/

and the download link is

http://www.gamecubeos.com/modules/mydownloads/visit.php?cid=1&lid=17

Oh yeah, I'm running an NTSC plain old black gamecube. Regarding 1.X, could it be that 1.X only works on PAL gamecubes? I don't know, just a theory. Any NTSC owners able to use 1.X using SD Media Launcher?

 

Also regarding DVD+R and -R, what I've read is that 1.X will NOT read +R discs. However, -R should work on both 1.5 and 1.X.

And regarding the Wavebird problem, I read somewhere that all you need to do is switch it on then off when GCOS is booted. I could be wrong though, but it's worth a try. Or was it something like leave it off until GCOS is booted? Sorry

 

I use GCoS v1.x with my SD Media Launcher.....I haven't had any problems with any games I've burned so far. All NTSC burned with Imgburn on Ritek -R at 2x. Possibly you got a bad file or something. But it works perfectly for me. Also, I will have to try that Wavebird fix you mentioned. I was the one having the issue with it.

 

Any way for this to work on the Wii???

I tried using both versions of gcos mentioned and it won't even boot original gamecube games from the drive.

 

Does not work on the Wii

 

Got my SD today, tried playing a backup burned to DVD +, didn't work.
Tried GCOS 1.5 and GCoS 2 Public BETA. Public beta I could not even get the backup to try to load, 1.5 tried and said media not recognized.
I was about to go out and get an external -R burned when it dawned on me that my laptop is only 3 months old and would likely burn + and -.
That was the case so I got me some Fuji DVD-R's, burned the iso with nero at 2x, and it still is not recognized, so on to the pot adjustment I guess.
Tried nero, imgburn and clone DVD burning at 1x on the fuji - , so if its not the pot thing guess I'm screwed.

Anyone know if they sell them bits to take out the screws anywhere like radio shack, gamestop, home depot ? I got a set of security bits and assumed that I would have the right one, but I don't and would hate to have to wait a week to get one online.

 

here,

melted pen mod 0

melted pen mod 1

melted pen mod 2

it does not damage your gamecube, unless you are careless...

/edit: a 5/32 bit also works, i have one and they fit the screws i got out. it's just i couldn't fit the bit into the cube... good thing i had some pens.

 

Thanks X, got it to go.
Pen mod - I tried this earlier with no sucess but figured I'd give it another shot. Went through 4 pens and was about to give up when I tried a weird looking orange one. To my suprise, the screw came right out, and the next one too. Had to reform it for the next two, and of course the last one was a PITA with the pen getting stuck in the hole, but got it eventually.
Three things of importance here - Get it nice n soft, but not so soft it is molten ... Press down fairly firmly to get a good form, but not so much you mash it. And to wait at least a minute to make sure its cooled down sufficiently.
And yes, it does appear that they designed that shaft specifically so that an ordinary socket will not fit into it ... A slim deepwell might have worked but I didn't have one of that size.

Dis-assembly came off without a hitch, knocked the pot down from 480 to 260 [and yes, I should have tried incriments but did not]. I still have it partially dis-assembled, maybe I'll boost it up to 325 or so and see if it works, don't want to prematurally fry my laser ... But anyway, the one backup that I have burned seem to work just fine after this process.

 

Heres two more questions.
So this process has to be repeated for every ripped game ... Boot up with the SD DVD, then boot to the ripped one ?
And does anyone know if DVD RW discs will work ?

 

yes.
no.

 

Wow, thats one cool tutorial.. Well done man, this will help me a LOT!

 

As a side note that might help others, Nero has burned me nothing but coasters, and clone DVD had complete success with.
Of course, it might be just the opposite for you, but keep that in mind if your backups don't work [even after the pot adjustment].

 

I use ImgBurn....works perfect everytime. Easy to use and FREE!

 

I know that PAL games won't boot with the GCoS on an NTSC system....what about vice versa? Will an NTSC game boot through GCoS on a PAL system?